Introducing Chores

Teaching kids responsibility and the benefits of chores.

Okay mamas, we all know that adding more littles to the family means adding more messes. If we’re being totally honest, each of us have looked forward to when we can lighten the load by teaching our kids responsibility with age appropriate chores! Can I get an “AMEN” from the other mamas who believe in the benefits of chores?!

So, what are the benefits of chores?

Everyone has their own perspective and approaches when it comes to chores. Some of us believe hard work is its own reward while others support monetary encouragement. All joking aside, I’m a big believer in the benefits of chores for our littles, no matter what approach you choose.

If you’re a mama of younger little ones, it’s never too early to start introducing chores with them! Building a foundation of hard work and teaching kids responsibility is an important part of their development. Allowing our littles to help, teaches them about teamwork, responsibility, determination, consequences, rewards, time management, and a slew of other life skills they will be thankful for (some day).

If you’re taking your first steps toward introducing chores, keep reading for some great tips and my free chore list template printable!

It’s about making it as easy as possible for them.

If you’re kids are anything like mine, they’ll find any reason imaginable (most of them illogical) to avoid picking up after themselves. I’ve heard every excuse in the book, and a few that they creatively developed on their own.

So first things first, eliminate some of the reasons for denying your tidying requests. Try organizing your home to be easily accessible and clean up friendly. One of my little’s favorite excuses is “I can’t reach where it goes.” Putting storage at their level is an easy change to help them help you!

If you’re interested in reading about how I have organized my home to help with age appropriate chores and teaching kids responsibility, check out my Playroom Organization and Children’s Closet Organization posts! And stick around til the end of this post for a free chore list template printable.

You Can Make it FUN!!

Okay let’s face it, cleaning will never make my top ten list of favorite activities. However, there are ways to make it less miserable for everyone involved. As mamas we are required to become master entertainers. And these skills can be put to use to help our kids learn the benefits of chores!

So get creative and try to make games out of the things on your chore list. We practice free throws with dirty laundry, run around to save toys from the hungry vacuum, and have splash battles in the kitchen “pool.” There’s a fun way to spin whatever you put on your list, and you can make some great memories in the process!

Another great way to get your littles excited is incorporating STICKERS. All mamas know the magic of sticky pictures. If you’re not already, I would totally suggest using a chore list template to help your little ones visualize their tasks. Using stickers to mark completed chores is a great tangible way to celebrate what your littles are accomplishing!

Here’s how we do it.

Here is the link to my printable library where you can find the chore list template printable I use for my little ones! I designed it to be super adaptable so you can easily apply it to your own home chore routine.

I use this template by listing chores on the open lines. After each chore is completed, I let my son put a sticker on the corresponding day’s gray box. If he fills all the boxes for the week, he gets the surprise written in the banner at the bottom. Before you start the week, sit down with your little one and discuss what they would like to “Earn.” This can be pretty much anything. You can use a monetary allowance or a special outing or trip. We sometimes us a “prize box” that I fill with a bunch of things I pick up from the dollar store. It’s totally up to you! If you want something super visible, you can even staple candy in a baggy to the paper.

Make sure you’re encouraging age appropriate chores.

This can go both ways. I wouldn’t ask my two year old to unload sharp knives from the dishwasher, but I also wouldn’t underestimate his ability to scurry around and toss toys into a bin. There are definitely things that require us to wait until our littles are older and more capable, but teaching our kids responsibility and the benefits of chores can start very early!

If you are just starting out on this chore thing, let me encourage you. It will most likely start as a painful process with a little push back from your littles. But, don’t give up! These are such important lessons for us to teach our little ones. They may not appreciate it in the moment, but motherhood is all about the big picture.

Recognize the difference between what is their responsibility and what you are asking for help with.

The one word of caution I would suggest, is to be careful about what you include in your little’s chore list. Be very thoughtful about whether the item is something they should be responsible for. (Their own messes such as dirty laundry, toys, or dishes). Sometimes I’m tempted to be selfish about what I ask my boys to do. They weren’t the ones who left coffee mugs spread around the house. So they shouldn’t be responsible for cleaning up my messes.

I’m definitely not saying you can’t ask them to help out with those things. But I would caution you against using your mama authority to make them clean up after you. In certain situations I’ve asked my son for something and he kindly says, “no mommy, I really don’t want to.” Then I have to remind myself, that I’m asking (not telling) and he is allowed to say no. Then I have to clean up my own coffee mugs!

Are you a believer in the benefits of chores yet?!

Hopefully this was encouraging to you mama and you’ll enjoy my chore list template printable! If you have any other secrets for introducing chores, I’d love to hear them in the comments! We can never have enough mama tricks up our sleeves.

I would also love to hear from you on any of the This Growing Home Social Media pages on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter!